I’ve never understood this – I figured it must be because of pilot unions or something along the lines. It’s archaic that we physically search for black boxes rather than have it streamed. And to that point, why not have it video recorded as well? It’s a common practice across many professions – how there can be any justification against it?
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It sounds like you’re proposing to replace one of the two typical “black boxes” – the Cockpit Voice Recorder – with a streaming backhaul to a storage location.
First, note that there is a second “black box” – the Flight Data Recorder – which logs data about the aircraft to help re-create what happened after an accident. With your proposed approach, both voice and data would need to be streamed off the aircraft.
Second, as others have pointed out, there are complexities with reliably transmitting and storing a data stream from a moving vehicle. Ever had your call drop while driving? That type of interruption is not permissible in a high reliability recording system.
Third, transmitting that voice and data requires an antenna. That antenna becomes a single point of failure, such that a bird hitting the antenna would disable all data logging.
While black boxes aren’t cheap, they are the most reliable way to ensure that a snapshot of what happens before a crash survives after the crash.
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